Dark Rye Bread

Growing up, everyone in my family loved a good pastrami on rye bread sandwich. Back then, we simply referred to this Jewish delicacy as pastrami on rye. Of course, we made our own sandwiches at home. We also enjoyed pastrami on rye bread when we traveled to New York City each summer to see my grandparents. We loved going to the Jewish delicatessens on the Lower East Side between our trips to the Bronx, to see my Mom’s mother, and our trips to Long Island, to see my Dad’s parents.

When I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 1998, I began recreating all of my favorite childhood foods, turning them into the gluten-free classics you find here today, and in my three cookbooks.

As soon as I was diagnosed, I knew I’d need to make a gluten-free rye bread. Since this low-carb bread is made with the high protein, grain-free ingredients that I’ve been using for dozens of years, we can call it a paleo rye bread as well.

You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy this healthy bread recipe. It’s great toasted with leftover turkey the day after Thanksgiving. It’s also great for breakfast, toasted with butter, a side of eggs, and some avocado. That’s actually one of my favorite keto breakfasts, and some days I eat it for lunch instead.

To store this bread, wrap in a paper towel, seal in a plastic bag, and refrigerate for up to 1 week.

As you may notice, the pan for this bread is a bit of an odd size, it’s about 40% smaller than a traditional sized loaf pan. Originally, I baked this bread in a glass luminarc loaf pan. That was discontinued. I switched to a Magic Line loaf pan, that too was discontinued. I’ve now found and tested a new replacement for these loaf pans. I’m recommending the Fox Run loaf pan, which is not as good as the previous two pans, but good enough. The reason I don’t love it, is that the sides are not as high as the other loaf pans, and the loaf is not as tall as the ones I made in the previous pans.

Whatever you do, don’t bake this bread in a regular, traditional sized loaf pan. Because there is only enough batter for the smaller sized loaf pan that is called for in this recipe, it will only partially fill the pan and you will have a very short loaf that is not tall enough to make proper sandwiches.

I just made the rye bread this afternoon, and tasted it now, wow! It is so good! I have trouble with too much flax, so I cut the flax down by 1/4 cup and added 1/2 cup extra almond flour. It is unbelievably moist and I love the caraway seeds. Thanks for coming up with new ideas to help change things up in our lives!

This bread is definitely worth making, a ‘blast from the past’ taste sensation. Its dense and flavourful. Not eggy at all (or so tricky to make without holes ;-) Great with cheese or even just butter. Thank you.

Hi Elana, this is the first time I try baking bread and I really don’t know a lot about it. I’m really interested and want to learn. I was wondering if using almond meal would alter the recipe. If so, how does the bread change? Or is it fine to use almond meal?

Antonia, I test my recipes many times to perfect them. I wish I could wave a magic wand and let you know whether your substitution idea would work. I don’t have any special powers though, so you’ll need to experiment, just like I do. Feel free to try your substitution, and also to share your results in the comments. Thanks!

Hi Aurora, thanks for sharing your concerns about this recipe. We make it every week or so and get a small loaf from using the recommended loaf pan that is perfect in height with a nice tall slice. I haven’t tried doubling the recipe so not sure if that would work. Here’s another bread recipe that you might like. It calls for a standard size loaf pan and you will get a bigger slice from it:

I found a “disposable” aluminum pan that I was going to work some origami magic on to reach the desired finished dimensions until i measured it…..it’s basically perfect!
I haven’t baked in it yet but am going to line it with parchment first in hopes of being able to get a couple of uses out of it.
Am so glad I found this recipe that you created. Have been wanting some “rye” bread for sandwiches.

Hi there! this looks delicious but I was wondering – how long does it keep for? I want to make it for a brunch on Saturday morning but was hoping I could make it on Friday night – do you think that’ll be ok? Many thanks again!

Hi Amelia, thanks for your comment. When I bake this bread, I let it cool overnight, then wrap it in a paper towel and a plastic bag and store it in the fridge. it will keep for up to a week using this method :-)

I have no idea if this blog is still active, but I was looking for Paleo bread recipes when I found yours.
With the glass pan, do you mean any glass pan of those measurements?
Cause here in the Netherlands, Luminarc is one of the biggest brands for glass household products. Most ovenpans are made of glass and 16 x 10 is quite a normal size. Do you happen to have a picture? Then I know what to look for!

Hi Bianca, the size of the pan is key to this recipe, the material that the pan is made of is not as important. Click on the green text in the instructions portion of the recipe for a photo of the necessary pan. Be sure to use the pan size that this recipe calls for. If you use a bigger pan, you won’t have enough batter to fill it up and the result will be a very flat bread. Please stop back by and let us know how the bread turns out when you bake it :-)

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